This disclosure generally relates to the field of networking, and more specifically to the provision of tracing and probing functionality at the service topology layer of a network.
Service functions (SF) can include, e.g., routing packets to/through a particular firewall, load balancing, accounting functions (e.g., compiling statistics or otherwise keeping track of how many packets of a particular type come through the network), performing a network address translation (NAT), and numerous other functions.